Mike Hannigan

Mike Hannigan, President and co-Founder of Give Something Back - Office Supplies.

Mike was born in Pensacola, Florida. He earned his B.A. in Philosophy from U.C. San Diego and his M.A. in Criminology from U.C. Berkeley. He began work for the Xerox Corporation and built his career in management for business products companies for the next decade until starting GSB.

Says Hannigan, "I was active in the usual social movements of the late '60s and '70s, and although I was very successful as a businessperson, I was never really comfortable in that role and never happy unless I was involved in some type of community political activism. I approached Sean Marx with the idea of forming a company that would combine our business skills and our values. We saw an opportunity to use the power of business to further the goals of community service through funding nonprofit organizations. We started the company in 1991 with $20,000 each from our savings and started making sales calls from my living room."

Give Something Back, which provides more than 40,000 office products from paper clips to furniture, has offices throughout California, with operations in Oregon and Washington, and plans to expand in 2011, tripling sales in the next five years. GSB added a new tagline last year, “Where Value Meets Values®”, to answer customers’ questions about whether they have to pay more to give something back.

Give Something Back History (GSB)Buddies Sean Marx and Mike Hannigan worked in the business supply industry for years, and though they both enjoyed great success, they yearned to give something back.The ”Aha! Moment“ came as Mike cooked dinner one night. Opening a jar of Newman’s Own spaghetti sauce, he thought, ”Hey, if Paul Newman can do it, so can we! We might not have his baby blues, but we sure know business products!“

So in 1991 Mike and Sean combined savings to found a company based on Newman's Own, a company that would sell quality products for less and give the profits back to the community. GSB began in Mike's living room, but soon outgrew those digs, moving into larger quarters, and before long became the West Coast's largest independent office supplier, with corporate offices in three cities, serving businesses nationwide from 40 distribution centers.

We exist to improve the quality of life in our communities. We do this by serving and delighting our customers, giving time and profits to our community, growing employees and helping them realize their full potential, and leading others by inspiring them to give, serve and grow.